Gyp Those Trusting
by ViolinElectrician
Summary: Everything is a mystery in Whitechapel. That could be fun for Raleigh Cooper. Maybe.
1. Paranormal

She was sure—_absolutely sure—_that the house had looked like a house when she had gone to school that morning. She had expected it to look the same when she returned, but, alas, she came back to a "For Sale" sign and a living room chock full of boxes.

"What is going on?" Raleigh 'greeted' her mother. Arianna Cooper smiled as if everything was normal.

"We're moving," she answered. Raleigh suddenly saw her dad lugging a headboard down the stairs—_her_ headboard.

"Dad! What are you doing? That's my bed! Where am I supposed to sleep tonight?"

"You'll be sleeping in our new house, of course," her dad, David, said.

"What new house?"

"The one we bought last month."

"But we didn't buy a house. I don't remember that."

"Well, you… didn't know," Arianna said with a hint of guilt.

"Oh, okay." Raleigh forced a smile. "Why didn't I know?"

"We didn't want to make you nervous. It's almost finals!"

"Mom, finals don't start for, like, four months."

"…Which will be gone like _that._"

"Okay, so, we're moving _tonight_?"

"No. We're moving right now."

"Why?"

"The paranormal doesn't wait," David chimed in.

"You're paranormal," Raleigh said monotonously, only to receive slightly scolding looks. "I'm only two weeks into the second semester. If you bought a house last month, we could have moved before the semester started." Her dad must have bought the house on his 'business trip,' near the beginning of Christmas Break.

"We wanted you to get a chance to say goodbye to your friends."

"_What _friends?" Again, scolding looks.

"Help us load." Her parents motioned to all of the boxes.

"Okay, I am _not_ helping your wacky paranormal search. Besides, your equipment is totally jank. I mean yesterday, it said I was a—"

"Yeah—we know, Raleigh. The monster tracker is a little bit… 'janky.'"

"A little bit? _Fine._"

Well, it wasn't as if she would miss Tucson. Like she had said before, she didn't have any friends. So, she rolled her eyes, let out an exasperated groan and picked up the nearest box, heading for the moving truck in the garage. Finally, after about two hours, all of the boxes were in the various trucks, and Raleigh headed up to her room to try and make the move touching.

"Well," she said to the air. "I'm going to miss you room," she said dreamily, before looking at the floor and then back up. "Oh, who am I kidding? No, I'm not," and they got in the truck and drove. They drove and drove, for hours, all the way to their new house in Whitechapel.


	2. Wicked Foggy

Raleigh began to brace herself, and then decided that she hadn't cared before, so why care now? But the truth was that she had cared. Going into school as an outcast had been embarrassing before, and now she had to do it all over again. She walked through the doors, holding out her schedule. It had her locker number in the bottom right corner, scribbled on by the principal.

_Okay,_ she thought. _My first class is math at eight… not for another fifteen minutes._ She wandered the halls and finally found Locker 105. _Okay, 22-12-17. _She pulled and the door opened. She took a magnet from the side pocket of her backpack and put her schedule up inside the door. She started to close the door and then opened it again. She did this a couple of times, contemplating whether to close the locker and risk forgetting her combination. Finally, she resorted to copying the combination into her phone, which luckily, was under a pass code she had no problem remembering. She closed the door and headed off. Might as well get to the class early… She started down the hall, but just as she turned a corner, she felt eyes on her back. _Oh, no. Here we go._

"Hey, wait up," a sly voice called after her. She stopped and spun around, flipping her bangs away from her eyes. She looked up at the person, a blonde girl, who was looking at her as if she was happy to see her—but not in a friendly way. "Who are you?"

"Raleigh."

"Oh, nice to meet you, Raleigh." Down the hall, three sets of eyes were watching the interaction.

"What's Erica doing?" Ethan asked.

"I don't know, but it doesn't look good," his friend Sarah observed.

"Erica wouldn't… _eat_ that girl, would she? I think she just moved here. I doubt getting eaten by a vampire is a fantastic welcome," Benny said, his eyes turning to slivers. Ethan raised his eyebrows, aware that Benny was likely planning his newest pickup line. Finally, after seeing the look of hunger in Erica's eyes, Sarah took off towards the scene.

"Hey!" she greeted. Erica's devious smile faded to a look of disappointment. "Hi, I'm Sarah." She held her hand out to the new face.

"This is Raleigh," Erica said. She pronounced it "Rah-_lay_," causing the latter to roll her eyes.

"It's '_Raw_-lee,'" she corrected.

"Whatever, Rolly."

"Really—'Rolly?'"

"Um, what class do you have first period, Raleigh?" Sarah asked nervously, trying to calm the situation.

"Algebra 1, I _think_."

"Oh, you're a freshman."

"Yes, 'Fresh' is right," Erica said suddenly, eyeing Raleigh, who glanced at her and then back to Sarah.

"Yes, I'm a freshman."

"Well, lucky for you, I have some friends who are in your class!" With that, Sarah led Raleigh over to Benny and Ethan, who had been joined by Rory, and away from Erica, whose look of starvation was following them. When they finally made it to the three boys, Raleigh peered back at Erica.

"Why was she looking at me like she wanted to eat me?" she asked.

"Oh, because she did!" Rory blurted. Raleigh looked at him, shocked.

"What?"

Ethan elbowed Rory, who then collected himself and realized his misstep.

"Because you're so _cute_!" he corrected quickly. "I could just eat you up!" he finished. He got another elbow from Ethan.

"He's speaking figuratively, of course. He wouldn't _really_ eat you," Ethan said.

"Right, okay…"

"That was Erica back there. She's just… really hungry. Um, guys this is Raleigh. Raleigh, this is Ethan, Benny and Rory. Guys, she has Algebra 1 first period. Can someone take her to the classroom?" Suddenly, Raleigh found Rory sniffing her. She backed up.

"You kind of smell like wet dog," he said.

"Okay, then." She gave a worried smile and backed up a little further. "You can—you can stop sniffing me now."

"Alright. Let's go to class! Come on, Benny!" Ethan cut in, grabbing Benny and motioning Raleigh to follow.

As they were walking, Benny suddenly said, "You don't _really_ smell like wet dog." At last, they made it to the classroom and Raleigh went in to see the teacher. Ethan and Benny stood in the hall, and watched as she pulled her shirt collar up to her nose and sniffed it. After she was out of earshot, Ethan turned to Benny.

"Wow, you had _all_ that time to come up with a line, and you chose _that._"

* * *

><p>Raleigh wanted to get up and jump around. Being chill all the time was hard to do, especially when it was night, and at seven thirty, she was waiting for her parents to go to their all-night stakeout. She was lucky they trusted her to stay home alone. They had at least three all-nighters a week, and the rest they always went until twelve in the morning. It was the perfect arrangement.<p>

"Honey, are you sure you'll be alright?" her mother asked one last time, a large duffel bag slung over her shoulder. Raleigh looked away from the television.

"Mom, you've been going on these all-nighters since I was twelve. Why wouldn't I be alright?" she asked.

"Well, it's a new town. I'm just worried."

"I'll stay in the house. I promise."

"Okay." Arianna turned around. "Come on, David. Time to go!" she called up the stairs. Finally, Raleigh managed to shoo her parents out of the house. She watched from the window as they drove off and waited about ten minutes to make sure they were far enough away. Then, she took off her white jacket, so that she was only left in her skinny jeans, tank top and boots, all black. She would never risk being seen out in the dark.

Just as she was putting her jacket into her closet, though, there was a loud crash on the roof. A rustling noise continued up above. When she made it to the bottom of the stairs, the television turned to static. She headed out the door quickly. She walked over to the window. She put her foot on the windowsill and used the storm drain to hoist herself high enough to see over the rooftop. She noticed the movement near the chimney, and pushed herself up just a little further.

"Rory?" she asked herself quietly. The blonde boy stood up and turned around. She ducked down. Suddenly, he took off into the air and headed towards a house down and across the street a little ways. Her eyes followed him. "What the heck?" she mumbled, running off after him. She stopped on the lawn of the house, as Rory crash landed—again—on the roof. Eventually, he disappeared from the roof and likely went in a window. She let out a low growling sound, but quieted abruptly when she heard voices inside.

"_What is that sound?_"

"_Benny, did you bring Puffles back again?_"

"Benny?" she whispered going up to the door and knocking. Ethan opened it, Rory—as she'd suspected—standing behind him.

"Hi. I know you!" Rory exclaimed.

"Hi," she said, giving a tiny wave. She then remembered what she'd just seen and her low growling sound began to resurface.

"Do you want to come in?" Ethan asked. She was quiet once more.

"Sure." She followed Ethan to the kitchen, where she spotted Benny and Sarah.

"Raleigh, what are you doing here?" Sarah asked.

"I live a couple houses down."

"How did you know Ethan lived here?" Rory asked.

"I… saw something really big—_person sized—_hit your roof. I came to check it out," she said. It wasn't a lie. She saw the nervous looks Ethan and Sarah exchanged. "Funny thing is… something hit my roof too, but… there was nothing there when I went to look." She knew exactly what had hit her roof—and Ethan's.

"I bet it was nothing," he said nervously.

"Right. Nothing. Didn't _sound_ like nothing. Sounded kind of like it was raining cars, actually… But I'm sure it's _nothing_! Just like you said…"

"Uh, yeah, so where are your parents?"

"Oh, they're pulling an all-nighter at that abandoned mental hospital downtown," she explained. "…You know, the whole 'paranormal expert' thing." She would have said something else about it, but she found Rory sniffing her again. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"I swear! You smell just like a dog," he told her.

"No. I don't," she chuckled, but she sniffed her shirt again anyways.

"That's okay. I _like_ dogs," Benny said in an exaggerated tone, smiling and trying to be cool.

"Well, so do I, but I don't want to _smell_ like one…" Rory leaned in again.

"No, you totally do—" Ethan stepped forward.

"Okay, Rory, just leave her alone—" He began pushing Rory away, but since Rory had his vampire strength, he had to grab onto Raleigh's shoulder for balance. Benny and Sarah recognized the look on his face. Rory backed up and Ethan gripped Raleigh's shoulder tighter.

_The look on the girl's face as she knelt was demonic almost. She turned away from her prey, yellow eyes—the only thing he could see through the smog besides the silhouette of her body—piercing through Ethan's body, even though he knew this was only a vision. She snarled at him, standing, and the scene faded away. _

"Ethan, are you okay?" Raleigh asked. He stepped back from her, smiling nervously.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine! I just tripped," he lied. "Rory! Why don't you show Raleigh around the house," he suggested.

"Oh, no, don't leave me with him," she begged, but Rory was already dragging her out of the room.

Once they were out of earshot, "What gives? I was just getting my game on!" Benny whined.

"Benny, shut up. I had a vision," Ethan said.

"Of what?" Sarah asked.

"There was fog, and I saw a girl, leaning over a dead animal or something. The only thing I could see clearly, though, was her eyes."

"Maybe it was Sarah!" Benny suggested.

"Sarah doesn't wear five inch platform heels... Raleigh _does._" Sarah didn't say anything. She peered into the living room at Raleigh's shoes. Benny was preoccupied with something else.

"'Five inch platform heels?' Dude, you're such a girl!" he jeered.

"Benny, that is _not_ important. Do you know what this means?"

"What?"

"She's a vampire!"

"How many vampires do you know that smell like dog?" Sarah asked incredulously.

"What's your point?" said Ethan.

"She's not a vampire. She smells like dog." Her suggestions did not warrant the reaction she had expected. Instead both boys said nothing. She shrugged. "If she were any sort of supernatural being she would probably be part dog. And you can't guarantee it was her. A _lot_ of girls in Whitechapel wear heels!"

"Then how do you explain why I got the vision when I touched Raleigh?"

"Maybe Raleigh was the victim that the girl was leaning over."

"Do you really believe that?"

"I'm just saying, Ethan. Look at _all_ the possibilities."

"Oh, _fine._ But I'm looking into my first theory!" He turned to Benny. "And you're helping me!"

"No, I want to stay down here! She's about to come back!"

"Benny!"

"Look at it this way." _Here comes the ploy,_ Ethan thought. Benny continued, "Do you really think it's a good idea to leave two vampires and a potential werewolf alone together while your little sister is in the living room watching TV? This could work for _both of us!_" He jerked a thumb discreetly at Sarah. Ethan finally understood Benny's plan and nodded.

"You know what, Benny?" he beamed. "You're right. Sarah, you can help me. Benny will stay down here with Rory and Raleigh!"

Sarah sighed but followed Ethan upstairs. Raleigh came bounding in, smiling. Rory was not with her.

"Where's Rory?" Benny asked.

"I turned the television to _Jacuzzi Time Machine._ I had to pay Ethan's sister off though. She's a little con artist." She put a finger to her lips. "Don't tell Ethan." She looked around. "Speaking of Ethan, where did he and Sarah go?"

"Upstairs, to… canoodle," he lied.

"Whoa. I wasn't aware they were _together._"

"Neither was I," he replied. Time to go to work. "But, uh, now we're _alone._ Just…_ you_… and _me_. Alone. Together. In a room." She cocked her eyebrows.

"You just met me," she smirked.

"Details," he said, with a click of his tongue. She crossed her arms.

"No."

"You don't even know what I was going to say yet."

"What were you going to say?"

"I was going to ask if you wanted to… play a _board game_."

"Actually, Benny. I'm going to have to take a rain check. I have something I have to do." She started for the door. Benny followed.

"But, maybe you shouldn't go out yet. Your parents aren't home. They won't notice. It's wicked foggy outside."

"I'll be fine. _Trust _me." Those words made even Benny uncomfortable. "Tell Ethan and Sarah I had to go. Bye, Benny." She peered into the living room. "Bye, Rory!" she called. Rory stood up just as she closed the door behind her and walked over to Benny.

"Hey, dude. I'd love to stay, but I have to _catch a bite,_ if you know what I mean." Soon Benny was alone.

* * *

><p>Hours later, Raleigh was walking the dark streets, but she was not afraid. She made her way up the walkway to her house. There was a rustling in a nearby tree. She spun around.<p>

"Hello?" she called into the darkness. A figure dropped from the branches.

"Hello." The voice was familiar. The person stepped into the light coming from the porch. "Raleigh." _Rah-lay._ The mispronunciation gave her away. "I don't normally eat people who smell like animal, but I can make an exception. Your blood just smells so _good,_" Erica smiled deviously.

_Eat me? Blood? _

"You're a vampire."

"You're a believer. Then you know what these little babies can do." Erica flashed her sharp teeth.

"Yeah. I do. But I'm not afraid of you." Raleigh's voice said different, though. It was slightly shaky from frustration. Erica took this as fear and lunged for Raleigh, who quickly lifted her arms up. She grabbed the jumping vampire and the whole situation flipped. Soon Raleigh was on top of Erica, but then it flipped again. They each through punches and kicks at each other on the ground before finally, Raleigh got her legs free and kicked Erica in the stomach, sending her flying into the tree.

"Huh, my snack is fighting back."

"I'm not your snack," Raleigh sneered. Erica frowned and stepped back, not in the mood to fight for her food. She took off from the ground and Raleigh stumbled into her house.


End file.
